Guinea coup: Ecowas fails to secure Condé’s release
A delegation of mediators from the Economic Community of West African States say ousted Guinean President Alpha Condé is in good health but they have failed to secure his release from the military junta that overthrew him.
CAPE TOWN, September 13 (ANA) – A delegation of mediators from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) says ousted Guinean President Alpha Condé is in good health.
The delegation from the 15-member regional bloc arrived in Guinea on Friday.
The delegation met coup leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who arrived at the Conakry hotel where the envoys were staying, wrote Al Jazeera on Monday. He was flanked by special forces commandos, according to the broadcaster.
CGTN Africa reported that the high-level diplomatic mission was led by Ecowas’s Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway and Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry.
However, the meeting between the delegates and the military junta leader failed to secure the release of deposed Condé, who remains in the custody of the junta.
On Sunday, September 5, members of the country’s Special Forces Unit took to state television to announce that they had detained Condé and that they would be closing the country’s borders and dissolving the country’s government and constitution. Doumbouya subsequently indefinitely barred government officials from travelling out of the country.
Last week Ecowas demanded the immediate release of Condé and those arrested alongside him.
Not-for-profit news outlet The Conversation wrote on Monday that the latest coup in Guinea and Ecowas’s reaction to suspend the country’s membership has yet again demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the regional body in enforcing good governance in the region.
The online publication wrote that military coups in the region and growing moves by political incumbents to lengthen their stay in office through dubious constitutional amendments were proving a tough challenge for Ecowas.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher